GM closing Ontario, Detroit, and Ohio factories
04-26-19, 06:02 PM
#737
Lexus Fanatic
Due to automation, perhaps not, but a reasonable number can indeed return if we, as a nation, have the gumption to do what needs to be done to get them back. And that starts with not constantly surrendering to the "Job loss is inevitable because of Globalization" Gospel. But that's the problem...it will take discipline, determination, and co-operation with each other on our part, as a nation...and I'm not sure that we have it.
In fact, that's one area where I really admire the majority of the British people. They had the common sense to see that the EU was robbing them of much of their economy and national decisions, and voted to get out. The real problem is in the British Parliament for delaying the exit for so long after the popular vote.
In fact, that's one area where I really admire the majority of the British people. They had the common sense to see that the EU was robbing them of much of their economy and national decisions, and voted to get out. The real problem is in the British Parliament for delaying the exit for so long after the popular vote.
Last edited by mmarshall; 04-26-19 at 06:08 PM.
04-26-19, 06:42 PM
#738
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
In fact, that's one area where I really admire the majority of the British people. They had the common sense to see that the EU was robbing them of much of their economy and national decisions, and voted to get out. The real problem is in the British Parliament for delaying the exit for so long after the popular vote.
aside from brexit itself, you do realize britain ‘allowed’ its automakers and plants to be sold off one by one, and recently honda, who has a big plant there, announced they’re leaving too. Britain is more or less a medieval theme park now with a strong financial services sector in london.
04-26-19, 08:42 PM
#739
Lexus Fanatic
well coming from britain, i have some thoughts on this...
aside from brexit itself, you do realize britain ‘allowed’ its automakers and plants to be sold off one by one, and recently honda, who has a big plant there, announced they’re leaving too. Britain is more or less a medieval theme park now with a strong financial services sector in london.
aside from brexit itself, you do realize britain ‘allowed’ its automakers and plants to be sold off one by one, and recently honda, who has a big plant there, announced they’re leaving too. Britain is more or less a medieval theme park now with a strong financial services sector in london.
Don't want to drag the thread too far off topic, but Jeremy Clarkson, BTW, did an excellent video on the demise of the British car industry.....one of the few times, IMO, that he ever did a seriously good performance on-camera instead of just clowning around. The video is a few years old by today's standards, but still did a good job describing things factually.
BTW....I was a big fan of older-generation Jaguars. Loved the Burled-Walnut / Connally-Leather interiors, and the classic body styling. Most of the Tata-sourced Jags they are selling today (with the exception of the XJ sedan) are basically Meh-machines.
Last edited by mmarshall; 04-26-19 at 08:48 PM.
04-29-19, 03:38 PM
#740
Lexus Fanatic
This morning, I was at the office of a local Eye/Ear/Nose/Throat specialist I've known for some time, and regularly use as one of my physicians (I've had bronchitis and a badly sore throat/larynx/vocal chords for several weeks). He drives a silver Cadillac CT6....one of the early-production ones. When I told him the Hamtramck plant was closing down by the end of the year, and he didn't have very long to replace his CT6 if he wanted a new one, he was absolutely shocked.....I guess he spends so much time with patients that he doesn't follow the auto-market news. He profoundly thanked me, and said he would think about what he wanted to do...replace it or not. He's a dedicated fan of big GM sedans...like a number of doctors, has driven them for years. My late uncle (who was a cancer surgeon in snowy Northeast Ohio) drove the FWD Oldsmobile Toronado for a number of years, starting back in the 1960s, which gave him what he wanted...good snow traction in a nice, big, easy-riding sedan, as doctors are often on sudden call, even in bad weather. (His wife, my aunt, had a 4WD Jeep Wagoneer). Back then, the Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado (done on the same platform) were the only FWD sedans in the American market.
Last edited by mmarshall; 04-29-19 at 03:42 PM.
05-04-19, 07:32 AM
#741
Lexus Fanatic
Mary Barra keeps virtually all of her salary despite mass layoffs
Despite several plant closings and mass layoffs, Mary Barra took a less than a half of one percentage cut in her own pay.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...-mass-layoffs/
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
JOHN BINDER
3 May 2019294
3:48
Negotiations between GM and the UAW detail how union workers were willing to accept nearly $120 million a year in concessions to keep the Lordstown plant open. Barra, though, moved forward with the plan to close the facility.
Closing the Lordstown plant resulted in the immediate layoff of about 1,600 American workers and since 2017, GM has laid off about 4,500 American workers in Ohio. Another 900 American workers in supporting industries have been put of out work as well.
After Barra closes Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations in Maryland, she is expected to have laid off about 14,700 of GM’s workers in the U.S. and Canada.
Despite the mass layoffs in North America, Barra continued to earn nearly $22 million — cutting her pay by only $87,598 according to GM’s filings. This means that while thousands in the U.S. are laid off, Barra took only a 0.4 percent pay cut.
While Americans are laid off en masse at GM, the corporation’s production in Mexico remains unaffected by any job reductions and has even announced additional productionin China.
As Breitbart News reported, throughout the 2012 presidential election cycle, Biden routinely claimed that “General Motors is alive” following the Obama administration’s $11 billion taxpayer bailout of GM in 2009.
Years after the bailout, Biden and officials with the Obama administration not only touted Barra’s leadership at GM but invited her to the State of the Union Address in 2014 and took photo-ops with the executive.
In 2011, Hoover Institution at Stanford University research fellow Paul Gregory noted that despite the Obama-Biden bailout for GM, the company continued outsourcing American jobs abroad. A 2011 report detailed GM had less than 75,000 jobs left in the U.S. while employing more than 122,000 foreign workers overseas. At the time, nearly two-thirds of GM’s workforce was located abroad.
Rather than stopping GM’s outsourcing, the Obama-Biden scheme focused much of their attention on subsidizing and promoting electric, plug-in cars like the Chevy Volt. Last year, Barra announced that production for the Volt, as well as the Chevy Cruze, would end.
Experts have called on Trump to implement a 25 percent auto tariff to protect American auto worker jobs and the U.S. auto industry from Chinese domination. Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), vying for the Democrat nomination for president, has told Trump to immediately ban GM from receiving federal contracts for their outsourcing, offshoring, and mass layoff scheme.
GM is looking to manufacture an electric Cadillac in China and continue manufacturing its Envision compact vehicle in China. The made-in-Mexico Chevrolet Blazer will soon arrive in U.S. markets. Last year, GM became the largest automaker in Mexico as it has cut jobs in America and increased production in Mexico.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...-mass-layoffs/
GM CEO Mary Barra Takes Less than 1/2% Pay Cut Despite Mass Layoffs
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
JOHN BINDER
3 May 2019294
3:48
General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra took a less than half a percent pay cut last year despite implementing a plan to lay off thousands of American workers, including closing four manufacturing plants in the United States.
Barra, a close ally of the Obama administration and Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, closed the Lordstown, Ohio plant last month, a decision expected to result in the layoff of more than 8,000 American workers in the area, and allegedly blamed the United Auto Workers (UAW) for the plant’s closure.Negotiations between GM and the UAW detail how union workers were willing to accept nearly $120 million a year in concessions to keep the Lordstown plant open. Barra, though, moved forward with the plan to close the facility.
Closing the Lordstown plant resulted in the immediate layoff of about 1,600 American workers and since 2017, GM has laid off about 4,500 American workers in Ohio. Another 900 American workers in supporting industries have been put of out work as well.
After Barra closes Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations in Maryland, she is expected to have laid off about 14,700 of GM’s workers in the U.S. and Canada.
Despite the mass layoffs in North America, Barra continued to earn nearly $22 million — cutting her pay by only $87,598 according to GM’s filings. This means that while thousands in the U.S. are laid off, Barra took only a 0.4 percent pay cut.
While Americans are laid off en masse at GM, the corporation’s production in Mexico remains unaffected by any job reductions and has even announced additional productionin China.
As Breitbart News reported, throughout the 2012 presidential election cycle, Biden routinely claimed that “General Motors is alive” following the Obama administration’s $11 billion taxpayer bailout of GM in 2009.
Years after the bailout, Biden and officials with the Obama administration not only touted Barra’s leadership at GM but invited her to the State of the Union Address in 2014 and took photo-ops with the executive.
In 2011, Hoover Institution at Stanford University research fellow Paul Gregory noted that despite the Obama-Biden bailout for GM, the company continued outsourcing American jobs abroad. A 2011 report detailed GM had less than 75,000 jobs left in the U.S. while employing more than 122,000 foreign workers overseas. At the time, nearly two-thirds of GM’s workforce was located abroad.
Rather than stopping GM’s outsourcing, the Obama-Biden scheme focused much of their attention on subsidizing and promoting electric, plug-in cars like the Chevy Volt. Last year, Barra announced that production for the Volt, as well as the Chevy Cruze, would end.
Experts have called on Trump to implement a 25 percent auto tariff to protect American auto worker jobs and the U.S. auto industry from Chinese domination. Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), vying for the Democrat nomination for president, has told Trump to immediately ban GM from receiving federal contracts for their outsourcing, offshoring, and mass layoff scheme.
GM is looking to manufacture an electric Cadillac in China and continue manufacturing its Envision compact vehicle in China. The made-in-Mexico Chevrolet Blazer will soon arrive in U.S. markets. Last year, GM became the largest automaker in Mexico as it has cut jobs in America and increased production in Mexico.
05-04-19, 03:52 PM
#742
Lexus Champion
From the NY Times. A photo essay on Lordstown and the workers. Very much a story about people and not about what's expedient or profitable. A part of the story further down in the article about workers who had already transferred there from previous layoffs, shutdowns.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ors-plant.html
Despite its weakened bargaining position, Local 1112 remains a lifeline for its workers. Dave Green spent many of the days leading up to March 8 fielding desperate calls from members seeking advice on whether to put in for a transfer to another plant or to stay put on the chance that G.M. would give Lordstown a new car to build. At the transition center, laid-off assembly-line workers help members obtain unemployment benefits, improve résumés, find job openings and apply for plant transfers, a speculative process that offers no guarantees. U.A.W. members can request a transfer to another G.M. plant if there is an opening; priority is given based on seniority. A U.A.W. worker who was hired before October 2007 receives a pension after 30 years of service. For someone who has worked full time at G.M. for, say, 24 or 25 years, it is difficult to throw away those years of investment.
This had already been happening for many years with other G.M. plants that have been idled or closed. One worker at the transition center, Christina Defelice, said she knew plant workers who arrived at Lordstown after four other transfers, or had been commuting from Pittsburgh or even from as far as Tennessee to keep their families on their health insurance or make their 30 years. She said she knew of a number of divorces, nervous breakdowns and even three suicides caused by such dislocation. Now those out-of-town transplants might have to move on again, joined by hundreds of Lordstown’s newly unallocated workers — people like Ernie Long, who had worked at the plant for 11 years.
This had already been happening for many years with other G.M. plants that have been idled or closed. One worker at the transition center, Christina Defelice, said she knew plant workers who arrived at Lordstown after four other transfers, or had been commuting from Pittsburgh or even from as far as Tennessee to keep their families on their health insurance or make their 30 years. She said she knew of a number of divorces, nervous breakdowns and even three suicides caused by such dislocation. Now those out-of-town transplants might have to move on again, joined by hundreds of Lordstown’s newly unallocated workers — people like Ernie Long, who had worked at the plant for 11 years.
05-04-19, 04:05 PM
#743
Lexus Fanatic
A U.A.W. worker who was hired before October 2007 receives a pension after 30 years of service. For someone who has worked full time at G.M. for, say, 24 or 25 years, it is difficult to throw away those years of investment
.......and, though it probably won't be done, the honorable thing, IMO, for GM to do, in this circumstance, would be to at least give those who put in 20+ years or more a partial-pension to compensate for the fact that they were not allowed to stay and finish their full 30 years to get a regular pension. These workers did not ask to be laid off.
05-09-19, 02:51 PM
#744
Lexus Fanatic
So far, most of the attention has been on the plant-closings at Lordstown, Oshawa, and Detroit/Hamtramck, but relatively little attention has been paid to the fact that GM's White Marsh Plant in Baltimore had also been scheduled to close on May 4. The plant builds RWD/AWD transmissions for full-size trucks/SUVs and some electrical components for Cadillac. May 4 (last Saturday) has come and gone, but I can't find any evidence (at least on-line) that the plant has actually shut down.
https://patch.com/maryland/perryhall...ed-white-marsh
https://patch.com/maryland/perryhall...ed-white-marsh
05-09-19, 04:33 PM
#745
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
So far, most of the attention has been on the plant-closings at Lordstown, Oshawa, and Detroit/Hamtramck, but relatively little attention has been paid to the fact that GM's White Marsh Plant in Baltimore had also been scheduled to close on May 4. The plant builds RWD/AWD transmissions for full-size trucks/SUVs and some electrical components for Cadillac. May 4 (last Saturday) has come and gone, but I can't find any evidence (at least on-line) that the plant has actually shut down.
https://patch.com/maryland/perryhall...ed-white-marsh
https://patch.com/maryland/perryhall...ed-white-marsh
05-09-19, 04:42 PM
#746
Lexus Fanatic
It's not in my religion or in my personality/character to actually want to see anyone suffer, whether in labor or management...but I agree that companies and managers that make dumb or careless decisions should not be rewarded.
Anyhow, I'm glad that those 300 positions will be retained...I'll assume (I hope not falsely) they are real jobs, and not just menial stuff like emptying the trash or mopping the floors at night.
Have you been able to find anything on whether the GM White Marsh Plant in Baltimore actually closed down last Saturday as planned? If so, there must be a very effective media blackout on it......I haven't been able to find recent articles or media-sources verifying it.
Last edited by mmarshall; 05-09-19 at 05:43 PM.
05-20-19, 06:03 PM
#747
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Some pretty crazy incentives for those who been working for GM a while.
https://canada.autonews.com/automake...voucher-retire
https://canada.autonews.com/automake...voucher-retire
05-20-19, 06:14 PM
#748
Lexus Fanatic
First, it's only at the Oshawa plant...probably from pressure from Trudeau's Government. Let's see what they do for the workers at the U.S. plants. Second, though I admit it's better than nothing, it doesn't really address the double-sins of tossing all of those folks out of a job to start with, and of cancelling some of the nicest sedans on the road in that price range. Notice I said (in that price range), because they can't be expected to compete with the six-figure Mercedes S-class or Bentleys.
05-20-19, 07:25 PM
#749
Lexus Champion
So this applies only to the 30 year skilled trades-people. $150K to get lost and $10K vehicle voucher? In Canada the average skilled journeyman tradesperson makes nearly $100K annually and now GM wants to get rid of these oldsters and wants them to spend money on a GM vehicle on top of that? Lol.
Most of them can't get another job because they're past their best years of physical labor.
Most of them can't get another job because they're past their best years of physical labor.
05-20-19, 07:38 PM
#750
Lexus Fanatic
So this applies only to the 30 year skilled trades-people. $150K to get lost and $10K vehicle voucher? In Canada the average skilled journeyman tradesperson makes nearly $100K annually and now GM wants to get rid of these oldsters and wants them to spend money on a GM vehicle on top of that? Lol.
Most of them can't get another job because they're past their best years of physical labor.